Google Search AI poses ‘unacceptable risk’ to kids, report finds

The artificial intelligence features built in to Alphabet’s Google Search pose an “unacceptable risk” to children, according to a new report from the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media, a California-based nonprofit.The study found that on test accounts configured for minors, the ubiquitous search engine’s AI features failed to detect suicide risks, said an eating disorder symptom was normal, and provided instructions for creating deepfakes, or sexually explicit fake content.The report added that unlike standalone chatbots, Google’s AI tools are built directly into the default search experience on school and personal devices, currently offering administrators or parents no way to disable them. The report specifically evaluated AI Overviews, which generate automated answers above traditional search results, and AI Mode, a conversational feature that lets users chat back and forth with the search engine. Rather than matching searches to a list of external links, the new features use generative AI to answer complex questions directly on the search page — a format critics say presents the automated summaries as if they are definitive answers.